QUICK ACTION HALTS SPREAD OF EBOLA

The Gabonese government's quick response may have averted a mass epidemic of the deadly Ebola virus in the west African nation, the World Health Organization said today.

No new cases or deaths have been reported over the past four days, the U.N. health agency said, and the disease has not spread outside a remote village in northern Gabon.Sporadic new cases of the disease are still expected, however.

Ebola, one of the world's deadliest diseases, causes massive internal bleeding and is spread through bodily fluids. It kills up to 80 percent of those infected, and there is no treatment and no cure.

Nineteen men from Mayibout, a village of 150 inhabitants, were struck with the disease after skinning and eating a dead chimpanzee they found in the jungle.

Thirteen people have died and seven more have been infected.

Other suspected cases are under surveillance in nearby villages. But fears of a spread to the town of Makokou, the provincial capital 90 miles away, have so far not materialized, WHO said.

The agency was concerned health workers at the Makokou hospital where the Ebola patients were treated may have become infected before the virus was diagnosed.

"The 21-day incubation period is still in effect, but no health workers have manifested symptoms of the disease," WHO said in a statement.

WHO attributed the limited spread to the rapid response by the the Gabonese government. All victims were isolated and the authorities launched a widespread information campaign alerting the population to the dangers of hemorrhagic fever, how it is spread and ways to avoid infection.

The rural location also helped reduce the spread of the disease, WHO said.